Homeopathic Birth Preparation

I love working with women to prepare them to get pregnant,
help them during pregnancy and birth – and then treat the baby
with healthy medicine from day one.
Here in Norway I am running a fertility and pregnancy clinic,
where we do give homeopathy to all our patients, and we also
give acupuncture treatment and nutrition advice. In this article
I will focus on preparation for birth with homeopathic treatment.
I give all my patients constitutional remedy. But I also
can provide specific remedy before birth, and this article will
be more of that.
Many of my patients have shorter length of birth, than the regular
ones. When the births take less time, there are also less
complications. Besides giving homeopathy, I teach all my patients
about breathing deeply during labour. And between
labours, advice my patients to move around, for example walk
or dance slowly.

Bellis perennis – pelvic pains

If the pregnant women have pelvic pains during the pregnancy,
it is often because of stiffness. It can be difficult to walk, and
they often feel the pain in the sacrum in one of the sides or
both sides, or they feel pain in the pubis. It is important to
loose up this stiffness, so the birth can be easier. This is probably
more common in the Scandinavian culture.
In many of my cases in the clinic I have then given Bellis
perennis c30, twice a day for a week. If the pain is still there
after a week, I will change the remedy. If the patients feel better,
I tell them to stop taking the remedy, but to continue if the
pain comes back.

Caulophyllum – preparing to birth

Caulophyllum is the classical remedy to use before birth. It
makes the uterus strong, and during birth it can make the
labour become more regular.
If you give Caulophyllum in higer potency, it can reduce some
of the labour pains. But before birth, I use low potency as C12
twice a day to prepare the uterus for labour.
Some women can have very painful labour in the beginning of
the birth. The contractions can come often, maybe every second
minute, or every minute, but the contractions do not open
the cervix. If you give Caulophyllum C12 few weeks before
birth, I do not see this happen.
If the placenta is stuck and is not delivered after the baby is
born. Then Caulphyllum C200 given every 10 minutes, can
help the uterus to contract and the placenta comes out. And
that is worth a try.
If you give Caulophyllum C12 before birth, and the pregnant
woman is getting more of the false labour, then stop giving the
remedy.
If you give Caulophyllun during birth (I almost always do), the
birth can be shorten by 90 minutes. A study from 1993 shows
this.

Pulsatilla – softening the cervix

In Norway, and I guess the rest of the world, the hospital induce
the birth if the pregnancy is 10 days over due time.
I have been told by midwives, that especially the Norwegians
have a tendency to have longer pregnancies, than women from
the Mediterranean countries. So I had to learn how to make
the cervix ripe more quickly to help my Norwegian patients.
If you give Pulsatilla C200 three times a day for a period of two
days, before the pregnant women is going to the hospital to
induce the birth. She will experience “menstruation” pains,
and this is the softening of the cervix. I am so happy every time
this is happening, because is will be easier to induce the birth
at the hospital. The midwife can then feel that the cervix is
soft. When the cervix is soft is is much easier to induce the
birth.
Pulsatilla is also good to give in the beginning of the birth,
when the labour is irregular. The remedy makes better and
more regular contractions.
If it is a breech baby, you can turn the baby around by giving
Pulsatilla. A baby that has moved around in the womb, and has
stayed in the breech positions for a shorter time, is easier to
turn with Pulsatilla. If the baby has been with is bottom down
for a long time, you maybe need to look for another remedy.
Sometimes a pregnant woman has anxiety that something bad
will happen to the baby during birth. Then a dose with Pulsatilla
can calm her.

Natrium muriaticum – let go

Many of my patients have been struggling to get pregnant, and
they have this fear that something bad can happen during
pregnancy and birth. Some are afraid to become a mother.
Some are afraid to not connect emotionally with the baby.
They can find it difficult to go through this transformation into
motherhood.
During the birth these women can tense up, and prolong the
birth. The mothers tend to “hold back” the birth process.

If you then give Natrium muriaticum in a high potency, it helps
the women to emotionally let go. The women become more
relaxed, and the birth process continues.
Also during the birth, if the cervix does not open as it should,
then a high dose with Natrium muriaticum can help to open
the cervix.
It seems that sometimes if pregnant women is scared of giving
birth, it can affect the unborn babies to go in a breech position.
Then Natrium muriaticum can help to turn the babies out of
the breech position, and the pregnant women will feel more
relaxed about the birth.
So Natrium muriaticum is a wonderful remedy to give before or
during birth.

Arnica – the birth remedy

What a good remedy to use during birth!
Arnica is known to get down the swelling in the tissue when
you have been hit by something. If you are a man, or a woman
that have not been giving birth before, I can promise you that
your vagina will feel very bruised and swollen. But the nice
thing is that if you give Arnica C200 every hour during birth,
this swelling will be reduced.
I remember a patient of me, who got examined by the doctor
after birth. The doctor, asked my patient, “Are you sure you
have had a vaginal birth?”. The doctor could not see that her
vagina has gone through a birth! That is how well the work of
Arnica is!
An other side, is that the bleeding get less, if you give Arnica
during birth. It is a good RCT study with Arnica and Bellis
perennis, with shows that the homeopathic remedies reduced
the bleeding. My last patient that gave birth this week in the
company of her a doula (birth assistant), and the doula told me
quite amazed that the patient hardly bleed.
After birth this remedy can be good for the “after pain”, when
the uterus is contracting to get back to the original size. I then
give Arnica C200 tree times a day for three days, and twice a
day for tree days more.

Complex remedy

It has been a good study in 1987 “Homeopathic Medicines in
Pregnancy and Labour” that was published in Cahiers de Biotherapie.
In this randomised double blind trial involving 93 women
where giving a combination of Caulophyllum, Actea racemosa,
Arnica, Pulsatilla and Gelsemium all in C5 potency. It was used
to determine its effect on the length of labour and complication
rates. The medicine was used from the beginning of the
ninth month pregnancy, and reduced the average time of labour
to 5,1 hours in comparisons to the placebo. The average birth
time is 8,5 hours (the women used the placebo).
The rate of complications for those using the homeopathic
combination was 11,3%, while the complication rate under
placebo was 40% !
So maybe we homeopaths, should just give these complex
homeopathic remedies for birth? For this study is so simple,
and so clear in favour of homeopathy!

Scientific studies

There are not many studies in this field, but I will mention
some her. Because of the small number of studies, we can not
say homeopathic treatments have effect during birth or as a
birth preparation. We do need much more studies to confirm
that. And we also need that different scientists are doing the
same studies.
– Eid P, Felsig E, Sideri M; “Application of Homeopathic
Caulophyllum thalictroides during labour.” British Homeopathic
Journal, Oktober, 1993, 82, 245-248.
– Dorfman P, Lassere NM, Tetau M, “Homeopathic medicines
in Pregnancy and Labour” Cahiers de Biotherapie, 94, April
1987, 77-81.
– Oberbaum M, Galoyan N, Lerner-Geva L, Singer SR, Grisaru
S, Shasshar D, Samueloff A, “The effect of the homeopathic
remedies Arnica montana and Bellis perennis on mild postpartum bleeding – a randomised, double-blind, placebo
controlled study” Complement There Med. 2005 jun; 13(2):
87-90.

Some last words

In this article, I have just mention some homeopathic remedies.
There are many more good remedies to use in birth, for
different reason.
I just wanted to write an short article this time, about the most
used remedies in my clinic. So hopefully you got a little bit fascinated
about homeopathy and birth preparation.
Please give feedback on the article, and I will be happy to hear
about your experience for birth preparation and birth treatment.
Hope to hear from you!

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